NJ Dawood Tales From the 1001 Nights

¶ … Empowerment of and Prejudice against Women in Tales from the 1001 Nights

The famous legendary tale of Tales from the 1001 Nights illustrates the life of Muslims in the context of different social issues plaguing the Islamic society. Tales consists of a thousand tales narrated over a thousand nights by a woman named Sharazad, in order to divert the King Shahriyar's attention from exploiting and killing more virgin women. The tales narrated by Sharazad shows the nature of relationship between men and women, and how each can be seen as conflicting members of the Islamic community. The focus of this paper centers in particular the status of women in the Islamic society, wherein they are both portrayed as empowered and prejudiced members of the society.

Three important tales illustrate the status of women as both empowered and oppressed members of the society. The Introduction or Prologue to the Tales from 1001 Nights provide a general background of the main problem that prompted the telling of the tales for 1001 nights; this story is the story of the King Shahriyar and Sharazad. The two other tales that illustrate the other side, that is, the empowered status of women, is particularly depicted in "The Tale of Bakbook, the Barber's First Brother" and "The Tale of Al-Haddar, the Barber's Second Brother." These tales depict the life of men and women in Islam, how an intolerant Islam society illustrates (through the tales' narrative) the unfair treatment of women to men and vice versa, and how these conflicts are resolved with religious undertones, with forgiveness and mercy as the main values illustrated and used as the moral for each story.

The first tale, that of Sharazad, the protagonist of the main story in the Tales, illustrates the origin of the conflict that would be reflected throughout the story (with the tales). King Shahriyar is portrayed as the king with insatiable desire for women virgins, and mercilessly kills them after exploiting these virgins, primarily due to the betrayal of his wife, who had an affair with their Negro slave. A similar experience has also happened to his brother, King Shah-Zeman, who has witnessed how his own wife, too, has betrayed him by having an extra-marital affair with a black slave also. Because of their unfortunate experiences, the two kings began avenging against women by exploiting and killing them for three years. It was only in the event when after a "scarcity" of virgins occurred, mainly because most of them had been killed or had fled their kingdoms, when Sharazad, Wezir's daughter, took the responsibility of entertaining the King with her different tales for a thousand nights in order to stop the rampage that he started years ago. The tales that follow illustrate women as cruel and clever, who bring men into unfortunate experiences, similar with the ones experienced by the two kings.

This particular tale creates a 'balanced' treatment of women as both empowered and oppressed members of the society. Feminine nature illustrated in the Kings Shahriyar and Shah-Zeman's tales show how women are naturally treacherous, bringing misfortune to men, and, in effect, to the society in general, as female virgins become victims of their individual, treacherous acts. Conversely, women in the society become the oppressed members, suffering the consequences of the treachery committed by female individuals. In these situations in the tale, the determinant that distinguishes between the empowered and oppressed women of the Islam society is power. Powerful women, it appears in the tale, have the power to become cruel and clever at the same time, managing to bring misfortune to others, particularly men, by being sexually empowered (that is, engaging in extra-marital affairs to slaves of the kings). On the other hand, women who are not politically and socially empowered or do not possess high social status/es in the society become the oppressed women and victims of men, similar in the case of the two Kings victimizing innocent female virgins in order to retaliate to their wives' deeds. In effect, power relations play a vital part in determining how women become empowered or oppressed in an Islam society. A balance between empowerment and oppression is embodied in Sharazad's character, who becomes the story's intermediary in the conflict between men and women, later becoming the individual who resolves the problem of the King's excessive abuse of power by exploiting and killing female virgins in the society.

The stories that follow illustrate women as (generally) empowered members of the society. In "The Tale of Bakbook, the Barber's First Brother," Bakbook, the main character in the Barber's story (a major character in Sharazad's tales), falls victim to the cruelty of a clever, young woman, who takes advantage of the fact that Bakbook has fallen in love with her. Through the young woman's character, readers are able to reflect once again on the power relations between men and women. In Bakbook's tale, the young woman, though empowered, is actually an accomplice of her equally cruel husband, who connives with the woman to trick Bakbook in believing that she is in love with him. Narrating the event following the demise of his brother, the Barber tells his audience: "She replied, Let me then play him a trick, and involve him in a disgrace for which he shall be paraded throughout this city as an example to others; -- and my brother knew nothing of the craftiness of women..." This statement shows the young woman putting her own retaliation to the cruelty of men to women in general. Despite this seemingly bold display of assertion in a male-dominated society, the woman is still controlled by a man -- her husband. In effect, the young woman in this tale suffers oppression while experiencing empowerment, similar to the wives of the Kings Shahriyar and Shah-Zeman.